The UCO reveals that Armengol spoke with Koldo about sanitary material, but ended up delegating management to a director general

PalmThe President of the Congress and former Government Minister, Francina Armengol, delegated the management of the purchase of masks during the covid-19 pandemic to the management director of the Balearic Health Service, Manuel Palomino, according to the report by the UCO of the Civil Guard. The UCO has delivered to the judge of the National Court investigating possible irregularities in the relationship of administrations with the business group of entrepreneur Víctor de Aldama a report on the dealings they made through Koldo García, who was then the advisor to José Luis Ábalos, to sell sanitary material to the Balearic Islands.

According to the document, when Koldo introduced himself to her by phone as Ábalos' advisor, she referred him to Manuel Palomino, in the same way she did months later with the Minister of Health, Patrícia Gómez, when the Aldama group wanted to participate in passenger controls at airports. In fact, the main part of the UCO report is dedicated to the efforts to contract and implement PCR controls at airports, a task that was finally assumed directly by the Government.

Armengol directly addressed Koldo to ask for his help in obtaining masks, to which he replied that the suppliers would give her the cost price. The report also includes the claim in March 2023 by the Government to the business group's company, Soluciones de Gestión, because the masks did not meet the required specifications. It also explains how in October 2024 the Balearic Administration declared the nullity of the mask award four years earlier, which would imply that the administrative contract "would be invalid from the origin, considering it non-existent for legal purposes, in the same way that it would imply that the parties should return what had been received under the contract, a circumstance whose execution is unknown".

In the report, the UCO emphasized Koldo García's "dominance" in the Ministry of Transport which he "would use in favor" of Aldama and cites, for example, that Armengol went to the then advisor in June 2020 because she could not get in touch with the minister.

The UCO interprets that, thanks to Koldo's intermediation, the former Balearic president managed to speak with Ábalos "with the intention of solving a problem" possibly related to the PCR tests that were being carried out to allow passenger transit. And in this "role" of Koldo García "in favor of the companies" linked to Aldama, the investigators also highlight how the advisor managed to get Ábalos' chief of staff to contact the employees of a company linked to the commissioner, allegedly to close a sale of PCR tests, something that was not fully finalized.

In any case, the former president's appearance in the document is limited to an initial contact with Koldo García on April 25, 2020, in the context of the first steps to acquire sanitary material in the midst of the pandemic. This contact is relevant because it marks the institutional entry point of the operations in the Balearic Islands, but the report does not record any subsequent message or any action linking her to the concrete development of the awards.

Armengol gave no orders

Sources from the Presidency of Congress have stated that the UCO report "confirms that Armengol never gave instructions to contract any company" and that "always, without exception, the decisions were made by technicians". Likewise, they have made it clear that it is proven that the President of Congress did not know Koldo when he presented himself as an advisor to the Ministry, nor did she have any relationship with Mr. Aldama, whom she does not know.

They also stressed that the UCO does not question the mask contract that Koldo offered and which was forwarded to the Health Service for technical analysis. The sources emphasized that the report confirms that the technicians rejected three offers from the alleged ring that they did not consider useful, without any political pressure, and that the difference in price per product category was claimed from the mask company. They also highlighted that the report dedicates 107 out of 190 pages to a PCR contract that was never made.

For her part, the Secretary General of the PSIB-PSOE, Francina Armengol, stated that the report “fully confirms everything I have been explaining for the past two years. The Government of the Balearic Islands always acted bravely, transparently, and committed to the general interest of the citizens of the Balearic Islands,” she said once the content of the report was known. According to Armengol, “neither when sanitary material was purchased, nor when it was discarded, was it due to any political order. Quite the contrary, the purchase or discarding of sanitary material was always based on absolutely technical criteria from the technicians of the Health Service. It is also fully confirmed that neither I nor anyone in my Government ever gave a political order to contract with one company or another”.

The Secretary General of the socialists added that “it is fully confirmed that everything was done following regulations, with existing legality, and the emergency purchase was covered by the Royal Decree-Law that we approved in the Balearic Islands and by the regulations that existed at the state level,” she concluded.

The PSIB demands that the "defamers" apologize to Armengol

The PSIB-PSOE has called for public apologies from all those who, according to their complaints, have "defamed" Francina Armengol and healthcare professionals in relation to the management of the purchase of sanitary material during the pandemic. The party maintains that the UCO report supports that the contracts were made correctly and without political interference.

According to the socialists, the document confirms that Armengol gave no instruction to award contracts and that all decisions were made with strictly technical criteria by Ib-Salut, within the framework of the exceptional regulations in force during the covid-19 crisis.

The party also defends that the report does not question the mask contract and that, in parallel, other offers linked to the alleged network were discarded without any political pressure. Furthermore, they emphasize that, if there were irregularities on the part of companies, responsibilities must be clarified, but they vindicate the "honesty" of Armengol's executive and the technical staff involved.

The PP accuses Armengol: "she opened the doors of the Balearic Islands to the corrupt network"

The PP has stated this Friday that the latest report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) confirms, according to the party, that Francina Armengol "opened the doors" of the Islands to the Koldo case network during the covid-19 pandemic.

The popular party maintains that the document supports direct contacts with Koldo and relations with Ib-Salut, and also points to a meeting at the Consolat de Mar with the alleged intermediary Víctor de Aldama.

The PP demands immediate political responsibilities and defends the current Government's management in recovering the amounts linked to the case and declaring the contract null and void.